"Microsoft doesn't understand that people travel around the world, and are hugely sentimental about things they've paid for. Here's a list of some services that are affected by Windows Live ID billing region locks and what you will lose if you move countries." It ain't pretty.

All big companies need to realize this. More than that, they need to understand that there is this thing called "the internets"

The problem is not that they do not understand, the problem is they do and are scared to their bones.

Regional restrictions are all about market control, or more precisely making sure producers control the market, not consumers by artificially restricting what people can buy from which vendor or through which distribution chain.

For example increasing short term content licence profits by stricking exclusive distribution licence deals for certain regions. The exclusive licence cost more but the now exclusive distributor can pass that on to the consumers because they don't have a choice to buy elsewhere.

The exclusivness is thenenforced by technical means such as DRM, region codes, Geo IP, or administrative hurdles such as needing a credit card or bank account for that region, or, in the worst case, through legislative means (e.g. making it illegal to circumvent ineffective technical or administrative hurdles)

But isn't in their own interest, and their shareholders interest, to sell as much as possible? Wouldn't CBS be better of selling to the whole world directly than having to go through all these loops, with different rules in each country it approaches?

<p>Nooo, because if that were true people in say the USA would be wanting to know why their episode costs $2.99 while the exact same episode in a different region costs the equivalent of 50c.</p>

See its all about squeezing that last dime and selling for the absolute limit the market will bare, long term effects be damned. I mean look at how long it took to get it through their thick heads that nobody was gonna pay for lousy WMA music with DRM up the butt yet while they switched to MP3 they are STILL making piracy the better deal as they charge a buck a single when by all rights it should be less than 25c since they don't have any printing or distribution costs.

This is why I truly hope the cartels go broke, things simply won't get better as long as they exist. They are already losing their stranglehold on audiences as more and more discover Internet radio but rather than keep themselves relevant by following the Henry Ford model of capitalism, make it cheap and sell lots, they will squeeze for every last dime, sticking it to artists AND consumers for every penny they can shake out of your pocket.

But don't blame MSFT for this one, although they do tons of boneheaded moves (cough Windows 8 cough) in this case they have no choice, its the IP owners that set the region rules and to get worldwide distribution rights would cost so much that MSFT wouldn't even break even. Its greed friend, pure unadulterated greed on the part of the media cartels and game publishers.

Hell watch the "Wil Wheaton Dr Who" rant on YouTube, he did the "right thing" by buying his Dr Who episodes from Amazon only to go across the border into Canada and have his videos locked. As he said "If I would have just torrented the episodes i could have been watching them".